1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

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Huer
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1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Huer »

Ok let the story begin. Doing my own EFI system has always been a desire of mine. I have been following DIYEFI for years (probably some 10 years). Also I have always been a hobbiest programmer. Lately I have been getting into embedded systems and have even enrolled in a course. Most of my experience is in Arduino's. But now I have an ESP32 and a TM4C which is a Cortex M.
Anyhow, onto the project.
A few years ago I was working at a salvage yard for my 3rd time and on my off time I was putting together a 1994 Taurus SHO engine coupled with a ranger 5sp OD manual transmission. There was a dramatic ending to that job and it's been a few years since then. I went back there last week after a few things I knew were stashed away and there it was, still there, like no one even knew about it. Turns out they are tearing down the building it's in, so they have to get rid of everything inside. I offered $100 for the whole set up. Ol buddy was like "Sigh.. Sure, that's fine.." So this week I'm going to get it.. Probably tomorrow.
I will take pics and add them to this thread. This thread may go on for a while, as a lot of project threads tend to do. Where I am right now there is snow. LOTS of snow.
This engine will be going in my old 1976 MG Midget. I drove it all last summer. The thing is fun. It was a heap when I bought it, now it has a Weber 2bbl carb on a cannon intake and long tube headers. so it has like a whopping 70hp. Late in the Fall the starter fried. For $115 I could get a new gear reduction one, but as it turns out, my girlfriend needs a transmission for her '79 Midget.. See where this decision starts taking shape?
As soon as the snow thaws I have a few other projects to get done first. We have to finish our '70 Mustang project. The body is almost done. Just a little more welding and paint. and putting the interior back together. We built a 450hp 351w for it and we drove it a little last fall. F.U.N.
The other project is my '89 Ranger which is getting a body job, and a convertible conversion. It's my daily.
It should be an interesting thing to do- take a car that was fairly quick with 60-70hp and dumping in 220hp and overdrive. So... This is a blog.. I am glad to finally making my first post in this board after ghosting it for a decade. And with a fairly cool project to talk about. I hope you guys will be interested in seeing this succeed and be helpful, because I will need your help :)
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Fred
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Fred »

Hi Joseph,

I moved your post to this section because the place you posted it is exclusively for those who have already run their engine on FreeEMS, not those with good intentions. I hope you find this! :-)

Busy at the moment - sorry for the slight delay on authorising, recently auth has been 1 day to 2 weeks timeframe. Once upon a time it was 12 hours, and it'll probably get back to that.

With respect to your facebook comment: "I have to say I did have a little bit of a recoiling effect when Fred mentioned that that MCU was the only one I could use"

Embedded software always has a fairly tight coupling with the hardware interfaces available on a certain device. You can abstract this with a "HAL" or similar, but then you have to write a HAL for every platform. Although much of the code is entirely portable and independent of the hardware, it would be a significant effort to replace the bits that are not. Additionally, very few affordable reasonable CPUs are well suited to this task. There are two other projects out there that use ill-suited CPUs to create engine controllers, but I wouldn't recommend either.

In fact, I wouldn't recommend going the FreeEMS route either unless you're patient and dedicated as it's not for the faint of heart. It's not like some website you can just browse to, or some desktop software you can just download and try, you have to invest significant effort to see *any* results, and there's a high chance of frustration and giving up.

Good to see you've been lurking for a decade! Funny that 2 days delay on first-post-auth concerned you after 10 years just watching :-D

Welcome to the site! :-)
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Huer
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Huer »

Thank you, Fred. I got the motor and transmission home, despite the 10" of snow we got today, and pulling the motor into the shed on a sled. I got it all cleaned up and 'debrided'. I read some about the 'Jaguar' board, and I'll get one, unless I find something better, and with what I've found, it doesn't look like there is. Making a harness is no big fear of mine. Figuring out all of the sensors and making them work with the code is another matter. It uses a Ford style hall effect CPS, everything else looks pretty easy to figure out and probably directly compatible with the Chevy stuff that most projects I've read about use. This is such a cool project! I have been waiting to do something like this for years!
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Fred »

You should figure out the details of the 'CPS' as a matter of priority - for that you may need special code, or it may be in the too hard basket, or it may be already supported just fine. Most other sensors are usually easy, but figure those out too, and post it all up :-)
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Huer
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Huer »

Yeah It's a hall effect, looks like it's very similar to the Volvo one you've dealt with. This may be plug and play. I have a book coming "How to tune and modify Ford Fuel injection". I couldn't resist. It seems like it has all the sensor data I need, and they pretty much cover the Yamaha 3.0. Is there a good online reference for these things, somewhere out there? I'm still looking through the code and the header files in the Vanilla Dev. I like how comprehensive it is with the fuel types, etc. Reminds me of my 3D printing code that I use (Marlin) Very nicely arranged, flexible and covers a lot of hardware. But I'm still bran new to your software. I'm sure there's a configuration file in there somewhere that I just haven't spotted yet. I have some reading to do. I tried to buy that Jaguar board from CoolEFI, but I couldn't figure out how. Do I have to call them (I hate phones). Also- Again, I'm a newbie to your software- Have others interfaced the ECU to a cluster display, readouts, etc?
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Fred
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Fred »

Vanilla dev on github is miles behind in many ways, but appreciate the comments on the clarity. Some things were well intentioned and didn't quite hit the mark, others were/are good. Some stuff replaced entirely. etc. Config is all in one directory and is just defaults, however there are ifdef blocks that swap defaults around so you can build ready to go for a specific vehicle.

When I said "figure out your CPS" the hall/VR aspect is important, but not nearly as important as the signal pattern. *That* is what we *need* to know :-)

Until you put the photo of the car up I hadn't read/absorbed the thread title! Sweet car! My neighbour has an MGB convertible, I think. Same blue :-)
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Huer »

We also have an MGB, another MG Midget, Pinto, Mustang, Dakota, Beetle and Cherokee :P Almost all of them run! I was doing some measurements yesterday and now I'm wondering of that 450lb, 27" tall Yamaha motor is right for that little Midget. The hood is so nice I kinda don't want to have to bump it, which would be undeniably necessary. Perhaps the pickup would be a better fit for it and the Midget can have it's handme down. The Dakota's computer is interesting. Seems like it was very ingeniously coded back in the 80's, but the memory is all volatile. It will learn the engine until it runs nicely, but if the battery ever gets too low it will lose it's memory while starting, which is sooooo lame. So if the first FreeEms project goes well, it might become a trend around here. I don't HAVE a ECU for the Yamaha motor, so it was the perfect candidate for a DIY EFI project. When I get a hold of some decent steel, I am going to set up a running stand for it (And others down the line) So I can dial it in and get the harness just right, so it can be a nice install. You say that the Github FreeEms is old now. Where can I get a more recent version?
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Fred »

Definitely don't chop up the car for a tall engine! :-o

Which year of beetle do you have? I have two: 54 and 61 (which my grandfather also by the name Fred Cooke bought brand new).

Newer code for those with hardware and a solid plan. Get that CPS info out in detail and we'll figure out if it's worth getting hardware or not.

Otherwise figure out which engine you're going to chuck into the little blue car and we can restart the line of questioning :-)

Just rest assured the current code is *much* better than the old code, so if you liked the old, you'll love the new when the time comes :-D
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
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FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
Huer
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Huer »

The Beetle is actually a 2017 Pinkbeetle Convertible. There are only 480 left drive cars. Other than the rarity of it, there's not much to really like about it :P

The yamaha motor is getting the FreeEms for sure, and that's whats going to be transplanted into something first, and it's looking like it's going to be the pickup. I will take the CPS off and figure out it's impedance and duty cycle. Is there anything else I should look for?
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Re: 1976 MG Midget meets 1994 Taurus/Yamaha SHO

Post by Fred »

Yeah, duty cycle isn't really enough/useful. There shouldn't be an on/off pattern with a fixed duty cycle. There should be some unique and decodable pattern with a design and scheme behind it.

Is there any literature for the engine? You may be able to get timing diagrams for the CPS. Otherwise either scope the output at a fixed speed or photograph the guts, or both.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
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